The Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership’s Newly Released ‘Report Card’ Paints Gloomy Picture of the Coastal and Marine Environment Around Montserrat.

The Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership [MCCIP] released a ‘Report Card,’ which discusses the key climate change effects on the coastal and marine environment around Montserrat and other United Kingdom Overseas.

The report on the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership website says climate change is already affecting these islands, through loss of habitat and degradation of biodiversity, and the social and economic impacts caused by extreme weather events.”

It says sea-level rise and changes in the frequency and/or intensity of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, extreme temperature and heavy precipitation, tropical cyclones, storm surges, and coastal, river and rain-induced flooding constitute the biggest climate change risks to the islands.

According to the report that was published earlier this month, the economic and social impacts of extreme weather events on Caribbean and Mid-Atlantic UKOTs are of national significance.

For example, Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 were some of the most intense storms recorded in the region and caused widespread devastation across the UKOTs.

It notes that in the marine environment, sea temperature rise is a major threat to habitats and species, most notably when marine heatwaves hit coral reefs causing bleaching and impacting on the ecosystem condition and function of the area.

The MCCIP highlights that some marine species have shifted their geographic ranges, seasonal activities, migration patterns, abundances and interactions, with important consequences for fisheries and the provision of other ecosystem services.

As temperatures continue to rise, further major impacts on marine ecosystems are to be expected in the future, the report surmises.

It continues that these climate change impacts are exacerbated by other human activities, such as coastal development, the effects of which combine to diminish the resilience of ecosystems to adapt to those changing conditions.

The six UK Overseas Territories in the Caribbean are Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and the Turks and Caicos.

They are diverse in size, economic and social development, and systems of governance and are small territories with populations ranging from approximately 5,000 people in Montserrat to 65,000 in both Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.